


The Perks of Being an IT Guy

by Blink_Blue



Series: Tumblr Prompts (Coliver) [17]
Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Connor googles penises for science, Embarrassment, M/M, Misunderstandings, Oliver is amused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 17:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6917251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blink_Blue/pseuds/Blink_Blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coliver AU where Connor is a stressed grad student at Middleton University studying molecular biology and Oliver works for the university IT department.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perks of Being an IT Guy

“Hi, how can we help you today–”

“I CAN’T GET ON THE FUCKING NETWORK!”

Oliver’s head whips up in shock, and he peaks around the corner at the new–very angry sounding–voice, causing a fuss at the front desk. His eyes widen at the sight of a very flustered–albeit very attractive–young man, who is currently waving his laptop wildly in the face of the poor undergrad sitting behind the front desk.

She also appears to be in shock at the sight. “Um, o-okay sir. We’ll try to–”

“Why am I locked out of the network?” He hisses angrily. “The public network is inaccessible! The secure one won’t let me log on! I’ve spent the _entire_ morning trying to load one _frickin’_ webpage! I can’t even check my email!”

“I’m–I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable–”

“JUST FIX IT!” 

Oliver can’t help but grin to himself, as bad as he feels, for finding humor in someone else’s misfortune. But he’s fairly confident he knows exactly which case is currently standing at the front desk, terrorizing their receptionist.

“Jess?”

Both she and the ruffled looking stranger look up at him. He feels a shiver run down his spine when he makes eye contact with the student. The man’s gaze is wild-eyed and wild, like he’s consumed too much caffeine to be considered healthy. And his hair sticks up in places Oliver is sure it wasn’t meant to. He looks angry and frustrated and _damnit_ if he’s not one of the most gorgeous guys Oliver has ever laid eyes on. Like 100% completely out of his league gorgeous.

“I… I think I can help him out.” The man’s expression softens slightly at Oliver’s words. “Why don’t you step into the office here?” Oliver says with a side nod of his head.

The man stiffly shuffles into the small room, and Oliver points to a chair for him to sit in before taking his own next to him.

“I’m Oliver.”

“Connor,” the other man mutters shortly without making eye contact, before awkwardly placing his laptop on the desk in front of them.

Oliver half grimaces, half smiles as he opens Connor’s laptop and starts clacking away on the keys. Clearly the other man isn’t interested in conversation. Probably isn’t interested in the nerdy IT guy period. Not that Oliver should be surprised at this point in his life. He’s used to it by now.

“So… Connor, connectivity issues?”

“I can’t get internet,” Connor mutters under his breath.

Oliver nods and pulls up a file on his own desktop computer. “Yup, it looks like your IP address has been blocked from the university’s network.”

“What? Why?!”

Oliver bites his lip and pretends to read a file closely. Obviously, he doesn’t want to give away that _he_ was the one who blocked it. “Um… it looks like there was suspicious activity that was logged. Some strange web searches…” He says as he turns to the other man with a raised eyebrow.

Connor looks genuinely confused. “I–I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s not me. I’ve only ever used the university network for school purposes.”

“Hm…” Oliver narrows his eyes and adjusts his glasses on the bridge of his nose as he inspects a document that he filled out himself. “So… you weren’t the one who searched the word _‘penis’_ on google a shocking thirty six times in a single afternoon?”

Connor’s eyes widen comically and a blush slowly creeps over his cheeks before he drops his face into his hands. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…”

“Look I won’t judge what you choose to do on your own time, on your _own_ internet,” Oliver says while trying to hide a smile. “But when you’re on the university’s network… well, we can see everything that you’re doing.”

“No no no…” Connor continues to mutter, before finally lifting his head, and looking more embarrassed than anyone so attractive has the right to look. “This–this is all just a misunderstanding. I’m–I’m not looking up _penises._.. like you think.” He whispers the word under his breath like someone might hear them.

Oliver _almost_ snorts, because the thought is ridiculous. How else does a person look up ‘penis’? He makes no such effort to lower his voice. “Well, I see here you also looked up ‘testicles’. Um… various other features of… male genitalia… The shear number of such searches you made flagged our system…” He swallows as his eyes skim over the long list of inappropriate searches that had gotten Connor’s internet privileges revoked. “You also searched the name of a… very popular… porn actress.”

“No no no…” Connor resumes his muttering. “Okay, that–that last one was an accident!”

A laugh escapes Oliver’s throat before he can help himself. “How do you accidentally look up a porn star?”

“By working in the _penis lab.”_

“Excuse me?!”

“That’s what the rest of the department calls us. The penis lab.”

“What–”

“Let me clarify,” Connor interrupts him. “ _Mouse_ penis. Our model organism is _mice_. I–I’m a grad student. I work in the molecular biology department, and my PI is Professor Keating. We’re looking at a mouse model of hypospadias, which is when… when the… urinary opening isn’t at the… _tip_ of the penis. And I was searching for pictures of penises–both mouse and human–strictly for scientific purposes.”

Oliver’s lips twitch into something of a grin–he can’t help it. Some combination of the situation and how flustered Connor seems to look, pulls a smile onto his face. So he gives a slight nod of his head. “Well, that… that sounds quite reasonable.”

Connor lets out a small sigh of relief.

“You must look at a lot of penises, huh?” Oliver jokes.

“Yeah,” Connor says quickly. It must have suddenly registered to him what he just said, because he drops his head, and his ears turn bright red from embarrassment.

“I’m just kidding,” Oliver says gently. “And uh… the porn star?” He clears his throat. “Mia Malkova, I believe?”

Connor groans and closes his eyes, as if the memory alone pains him. “That was an honest to god mistake. I was looking for a paper that a fellow grad student suggested to me. I couldn’t remember the name of the paper. But the first author’s name was Malkova. And they were using a mouse model of autism, which is made by maternal immune activation, which is when–” He looks like he’s about to go into detail, when Oliver simply raises an eyebrow at him, and he seems to change his mind. “M-I-A. So obviously, I searched ‘Malkova MIA’. And believe me, I was _very_ surprised, and _quite_ upset, at the search results.”

Oliver laughs as he watches the other man shudder at the memory.

“I screamed. I literally screamed.”

“Well, that sounds like a _hilarious_ , but very reasonable accident. I’ll–I’ll take care of the block on your IP address.”

“Thank you,” Connor says softly.

As Oliver types away at the keys, he can’t help but notice out the corner of his eye how jumpy Connor seems. The man can’t seem to sit still. The silence between them is deafening, and Oliver curses himself that the really hot guy also has to be a genius graduate student as well. “So… grad student, huh? What year are you?” He asks, trying to make it less awkward.

“Just a first year,” Connor says softly. “I’m not sure what I imagined, but it’s… it’s tougher than I thought. I’m trying to balance classes, teaching, and research. And my PI, Dr. Keating, she’s…” He huffs out a breath and leans back in his seat. “She’s a real hard ass. One of the best professors in the department, definitely. But uh… she doesn’t cut you any slack…”

“Sounds pretty tough,” Oliver comments. “Especially with finals coming up.”

Connor groans. “Yeah, they’re right around the corner.”

“You must be pretty stressed.”

“Stressed is putting it lightly.” Connor pauses and Oliver can’t help but sneak a glance at him. The man’s fingers nervously play with the hem of his wrinkled shirt, and his eyes are glued to his lap. “And also uh… just… really embarrassed, I guess. And I’m not usually the type of guy that embarrasses easily.”

Oliver gives him a small smile before turning back to his screen. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t purposely working as slow as possible, making it look like a lot more work than it actually is, giving Connor his network access back. But it’s not often that he gets to spend time with really hot guys, who don’t immediately want to back away when they interact with him. “You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” he says. “It was for work, right? I guess we just weren’t expecting _that_ type of work… And it’s not like you _meant_ to google the name of a famous porn star,” he jokes.

“Believe me, not the type of porn I look for.”

Oliver’s gaze swings over to him once again, eyes wide, lips slightly open, before he realizes he probably looks like an idiot and quickly closes his mouth and looks away. _What exactly is Connor insinuating? What kind of porn does he look for??_

“If I had known inappropriate google searches would have gotten me a hot IT guy’s attention, I would have done it a lot sooner,” Connor says smoothly.

Oliver chokes on nothing and he coughs embarrassingly. “H-hot?” He laughs nervously. He’s like 80% sure Connor’s flirting with him… But he’s been wrong about this type of thing in the past. And as a rule, guys like Connor don’t usually flirt with guys like him. He’s also never been called hot before in his life. Suddenly, the room seems warmer to him, and he slips a finger under the collar of his shirt to loosen it.

“Um… Can I confess something?”

“Sure,” Connor says with a smile.

“I–I was the one who put the block on your IP address.”

Connor’s eyes widen and his jaw drops as he sits up higher in his seat. But the corners of his lips are pulled up in a smile. Which is so infectious, Oliver starts laughing softly. “Now don’t–don’t be mad at me. But I couldn’t fathom why anyone would be googling ‘penis’ so many times.”

“It was for science,” Connor says softly, mirth in his eyes.

“Well, yeah, now I know that. After you explained the ridiculous scenario.” Oliver grins shyly as he favors watching Connor as opposed to the computer screen that he stares at on a daily basis. “I uh… I was actually worried at the time. Given your search history, I didn’t know what sort of person I’d be dealing with,” he laughs. “I honestly wasn’t expecting someone like you to walk through that door.”

“Yeah, um… sorry about earlier.”

“Hm?”

“When I uh… yelled at the girl at the front desk. I–I’ve been really stressed, and it’s no excuse, really. But I–I shouldn’t have taken it out on her.”

“I think she’ll get over it,” Oliver says lightly. “But you might want to apologize on your way out.”

Connor nods, and Oliver turns back to the monitor. “Okay, all done. Everything should be working now.” He double clicks on the web browser icon on Connor’s laptop. And they watch as the university email loads quickly on his screen. “You should be good to go.”

“Thanks, Oliver.”

Oliver nods as he watches Connor pack his laptop into his bag. He desperately thinks of something to say–anything to prolong their interaction. “Anything else I can do for you?” He asks lamely.

Connor looks up at him. “Um, actually yeah. Oliver, would you… maybe like to grab a cup of coffee sometime?”

Oliver’s lips fall open. He was expecting anything but that. “Are you–are you asking me on a date?”

“Yes–no–yes!” Connor stutters. “Not coffee, though. I don’t know why I said coffee. Trust me, by the time this semester is over, I will never want to drink coffee again. But… how about dinner?”

Oliver grins softly. “Dinner sounds great.”

They quickly exchange numbers, and Oliver can’t help the giddy feeling that runs through him–like a teenager with a crush–as he puts his number into Connor’s phone.

“I’ll call you,” Connor says with a grin.

Oliver nods as he watches the other man walk away. Right as he crosses the doorway, Connor suddenly turns around. 

“You’re totally going to be keeping an eye on my internet history, aren’t you?”

Oliver grin grows wider, but he doesn’t answer, which tells Connor everything that he needs to know. A slow smirk starts to appear on Connor’s face and it looks like he’s starting to get some devious ideas of his own.

Who knew being an IT guy had such perks?

**Author's Note:**

> [x](http://winters-blue-children.tumblr.com)


End file.
